Black Order: Modern Warfare
by scarfed-prinny
Summary: All the D Gray Man characters thrown into the middle of the modern battlefield. In an alternate reality where the Black Order functions as a Personal Military Contracting company. How do I manage to put in the whole AKUMA thing in it? You'll see
1. Chapter 1

Hello, Scarfed-Prinny here, with my very first fanfic....thing. I hope its okay compared to everyone elses, and preferably not as short. I know, I'm lazy. I own nothing, but I want everything, and remains to be a very nerdy highschooler. I hope you enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 1

"What can I say? Power corrupts."

Busy people, papers everywhere, dizzy sounds of ringing telephones everywhere, and unhappy bosses.

Just another day in the office.

In the midst of crazed people doing their jobs, one figure walks smoothly through them, talking casually on the cell phone, which is understandable when it was another phone conference or an important consultant.

The debate topic over the phone is about a video game that just came out.

The figure is a tall male, mid length black hair, black eyes, and wearing a crisp black suit with a matching black tie, dangling from his neck. An expensive looking watch is attached to his wrist, two minutes too late, and an i-pod is resting inside one of his pants' pockets. To top it all off, a nice pair of glasses resting on his nose. As he is dodging this way and that amidst the workers at the company, he does so without even any type of difficulty.

"Anyway, what's going on your end?" he talks into the phone casually.

"Well, things are kinda hectic!" yells a voice from the other end, with rapid sounds behind him. "The op-for brought out RFDs, and it's going to be real annoying if things don't thin out!"

The figure laughed, resting inside his office, closing the door and the blinds. He throws himself on his chair, and continues the call.

"It won't be a problem though, right?" he said, picking up a cup of coffee.

"Not at all! I've personally seen worse!" yelled the voice with a laugh in his voice.

"Well, I'll see you later here. ETA is 30 minutes. Take care Lavi."

As he hangs up the phone, knocking is heard, and a secretary walked in with a pile of paperwork. The secretary himself was in a lab coat rather than a suit like everyone else, and numerous pens were sticking out from his chest pocket. His trademark crazy hair gave the impression that it defied gravity with no problem, and pointed to the ceiling. With a very disgruntled expression, he looked down upon his superior, almost sure that this person will avoid to do work by any means.

"Section Chief Komui? Back to work sir, we don't have time to lie around."

"Aw, you are always too harsh Reever," Komui said, dodging the paper work. "Relaxing won't hurt anyone my dear."

"Let me put this plain and simple," Reever said with a smile, slamming the pile of paper on Komui's desk. "Do it, or else."

"Sir." He added as he left the room.

Komui sighed, but with a smile, picked up his pen. My secretary is a grumpy face today, half the sector is crazed in work, and all my kids are out on the frontlines or behind enemy lines, and I forget what else.

Yes, it's just another day in the office.

*

"Area is clear and cool." echoed a voice within the empty room.

Dust was still settling down from the atmosphere, and the ground was littered with empty copper bullet casings still smoking before completely cooling down. Along with the empty shells, bodies that ceased to function were on the ground with holes in their bodies. Shouldering the M-16, what looks like a young adult spat out a gasp of air, as if he was holding his breath for too long. He brandished wavy orange hair, a head band, and strangest out of the outfit, a black eye patch over his right eye. He was wearing the regulation battle suit, and laying his gun on the ground, started to stretch his muscles, groaning with pleasure as he did. Looking around, he counted the number of bodies, and reached to one critical problem.

"Ones' missing-" as he bent to pick up his weapon, a shadow burst into the light, and raised a knife poised to stab at its target.

Only to realize, a second too late, that a sword pierced its wielder's heart, killing him instantly.

"You idiot," a low key voice rang throughout the room. "What part of 'finishing the job' do you not understand?"

"I knew you'd come to my rescue Yuu-chi," said the 'idiot', laying down his weapon on the ground once more. "I can always count on you right?"

"Don't call me that," Yuu said, wrenching his sword from the assailant. "Or this will find its way through your heart next, idiot bunny."

Laughing, Lavi touched the side of his neck, talking into the throat communicator.

"Allen, we're all clear here. Yuu just saved me from imminent death."

"Called that," said the voice from the device, with a heavy British accent. "But it's kind of weird that you actually needed assistance though. Aren't you supposed to be some super genius who's going to inherit the central informational system back at base?"

"Your sarcasm is as colorless as you hair is," Kanda said, cleaning the blade in the corner.

"And tell Kanda he can go to hell." Allen added with a _very_ subtle hint of annoyance.

"Why can't we all just get along?" Lavi asked, smiling to Kanda. "Anyway, Komui told me that ETA is in 30 minutes. He told me that about 20 minutes ago, so you might want to get here pronto."

"Crap!" Allen cried, and turned his communicator off. Lavi, laughing, turned on the beacon and placed it on the ground, and sat down to check his weapon. Kanda was still cleaning his sword vigorously, and with a grunt, stood up, placing the sword back into its scabbard.

"ETA countdown starts after you place the beacon right?" Kanda asked casually, looking into the sky.

"Yep," Lavi said, without looking up. "Well, better now than later, yeah?"


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys. Thanks for the feedback, its really surprising that I actually got reviews. Sorry for the lateness by the way. Having a life is more of a hassle than I thought it would be...enjoy!

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The sunset over the Sahara Desert is recognized as one of the many spectacles that Mother Nature can provide. Many others confess to have almost religious realizations in the sheer beauty of it, and photo albums dedicated to its landscape never lead the shelves. Over this perfect picture of the said beauty, a spec in the sky seemed to be passing right near it. Inside were three people, uncomfortably strapped in, unable to move an inch, and infinitely annoyed that they were forced into the vicinity of such a cramped way of transportation.

Sadly, Mother Nature would have to take the back seat in their minds.

"I swear, the Section Chief is doing this on purpose," Allen said, trying to stretch his arms for the umpteenth time. "What's the logic behind sticking in three people in a Little Bird?"

The AH-6J, commonly known as the 'Little Bird' was never made for troop transport, rather, a small support heli with guns attached. The passengers were forced to strap themselves in more than usual due to the lack of any sort of door on either side, and consequently, had the capacity of letting the engine sound reverberate from both sides. Even with the headsets the noise was annoyingly loud. Kanda and Allen never enjoyed the ride from this bird even at the best of times, and as soon as they saw their ride, they seemed to collapse in exasperation.

"Shut up, will you? It's annoying as it is without your constant whining." Kanda grunted right next to him, his face fixed into a firm frown.

"Excuse me Kanda, but who shoved the stick up your arse?" Allen retorted with a deadly smile. "If it wasn't for your sword, we could've had at least more elbow room you know."

"Push it, Moyashi, and I'll shove this up your..."

"Try me."

Lavi smirked at the pair acting like children. Here were three grown men who kill more people everyday than anyone in the company, yet the main topic of the argument is essentially nothing. Lavi couldn't blame them though. It's not like they had a childhood to remember or cherish.

Looking out the side door, Lavi stared at the sunset. His brain told him that it was a combination of red, orange and blue, but yet, it all seemed grey and black to him. All of the sudden, the colors he tries to see drained from existence. When he was a child, he always dreamed of going out, seeing the most historical sites of the world, and basking in the glory and intellect it radiated. Milan, Barcelona, Tokyo, London, Berlin, all the places in his fantasy never had dead bodies or bullet casings on the ground. All the times he was at somewhere worthwhile to spend time, it was never permitted to move hastily or even if he could find the time to enjoy himself, the actions he had made haunted him, running the magic he believed lingered in the area.

Yes, his eyes only captured targets and hostiles now, all he could feel was the fear that he might be dead one day, and losing what little he had now.

When Lavi looked to the front, he caught the pilot's eye, and tapped on his upper wrist, and the pilot held up 2 fingers.

"Two minutes."

Nodding, he turned to the other two still arguing and shoving each other's faces, unable to actually do some physical movement. Lavi laughed out loud at the faces they were making, a somewhat twisted version of an angry expression.

"C'mon guys, we're almost there. Why can't we get along for 5 minutes?" Lavi said, leaning on the bird's wall.

"Shut up!" the pair yelled, and resumed at pulling at their faces, concentrated furiously on the task of pushing the other off the helicopter.

Lavi grinned at the pair of them. Perhaps human contact is the only thing that's keeping him sane for all these years. Some intimate contact with another human being is always nice, and it's even better when you don't have to shove a gun barrel in their faces for whatever reason.

* * *

After getting off the bird, ("Thank GOD") the three of them walked through the hallways of the basement they all knew too well. The walls were covered in some alloy that escaped anyone's attention, and many other soldiers were passing by with the occasional "Hello"s or "Oh my God it's you"s. As they neared the security ring, all of them started to strip off their weapons for depositing, and handed in their ammunition and whatnot. The final process was a walk through the metal detector, and sure enough, it shrilled wildly as Allen walked through.

"Any other metallic objects sir?" said a security guard, approaching him with apprehension.

"Not unless you want to pop my eye out, no." Allen said with a chuckle. The guard's partner took a look at the scanner, and it showed that his entire left eye was a machine, alongside his left arm.

"Ex, excuse me sir!" the guards said backing off.

"Not a problem," and with Kanda and Lavi, left the security ring.

"Took you long enough," Kanda grunted as Allen neared them.

"Sorry for having a mechanic eye Kanda," Allen brushed off. "It isn't my fault that my whole left eye is a machine."

Allen's left eye gave him quite the reputation. Since day one, his eye caught a lot of attention and questions. Still a mystery in how it got there, Allen claims that he was with it for as long as he could remember. The function of the eye was a multi complex mechanism that the Order is still trying to uncover. However with its origins completely unknown, the Order was still not able to even get close to duplicating its capabilities.

"What's the Section Chief up to anyway?" Lavi said stretching his neck. "We've only been on some random missions lately. The patterns are more…organized than this."

"Really? The irrationality of that coffee loving airhead doesn't strike me as surprising to me." Kanda scoffed, pushing the elevator switch, waiting for the next elevator to open. "I don't even want to imagine what he has in mind."


	3. Chapter 3

The trio walked into the office titled, 'Section Chief', and saw the chief sprawled on his desk, a mug of coffee in one hand, and a hunk of papers in the other. The walls were surrounded with a number of bookshelves, all of them packed quite impressively. The floor was just a big of a mess as the desk was, with letters, papers, files, and folders littering the ground. Komui's head was on the desk face down with the towers of paper surrounding his head, and judging by the sound of snoring, he was sound asleep. Allen, Kanda, and Lavi all sighed and threw themselves onto the chairs in front of their snoring superior. The problem, at this point was not 'how' they were going to wake him up.

The problem was, 'who' was going to wake him up.

"…I call drawing straws." Allen said with sharp eyes.

"Shut it bean sprout, we all know you're going to con your way outta this."

"We can always, you know, try?" Lavi said with a nervous smile.

"Be my guest, retard bunny, and I'll promise to bring some flowers to your funeral" Kanda sneered, in an I'd-like-to-see-you-try voice. "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you told me that you didn't remember what happened last time."

Of course everyone only knew too well. Section Chief Komui was a very heavy sleeper. In other words, orthodox methods of waking up a normal human being would not work. From loud noises to actual physical contact, nothing seemed to work on this man.

However, there was one way to wake him up in an instant. A method that works, but the consequences prove to be nearly fatal, mostly out weighing any possible benefit. Last time Lavi tried it, he found a barrel of a gun in his mouth and a very disgruntled Komui finger on the trigger. Apparently he was not the first to experience the Chief's sleep-wrath. Horror stories circulated throughout the facility, with some actually claiming that they saw body bags being removed from the office. After a while, it became natural to let the man sleep rather than risk the possibility of going to hell. All three of the specially trained, almost-super-human soldiers didn't try anything, especially with all their weapons confiscated from them behind a 5 inch thick bullet proof wall.

"Why don't you…how do the Americans put it…'grow a pair' Kanda?" Allen retorted. "Since you're so important that you don't have to do anything?"

"One more word, and I'll…how the Americans put it…'put a cap in your ass'?" Kanda told him, with a low voice, glaring right back. "It's called being smart. You should try it sometime."

The three continued to bicker at each other, with Lavi being painfully sitting between the two in order to prevent any actual blows from exchanging. However, as Allen and Kanda started to pull at each other's faces, the door opened for a second time, with a pleasant aroma of coffee and what seemed to be a cake. The person who walked in was a quite young-looking lady, with long black hair with twin tails to boot. Brandishing a small smile, she looked around the room, pausing for a second to laugh at Allen and Kanda's expressions.

"The goddess returns," Lavi exclaimed with an immense note of relief. He bounded to his feet, and clutched the person who entered on the shoulder. "Good timing too. Could you wake up your brother? We really don't want to die anytime soon."

"What are you talking about Lavi, I was never asleep, was I now? Hahahaha."

Bewildered, all of them stared at the flustered section chief who was sipping something from his empty cup, hair flying everywhere, and his glasses crooked in weird angles to top it off. If nothing, his mechanical laughter gave off the obvious lie away.

"Look Linalee, I was never asleep! I was just, uh, ignoring them! Yes! That's it! Your big brother never sleeps during work!" Komui added in a flash, adding more of the mechanical laughter at the end of his sentence.

"It's all fine; I was going to wake you up anyway. Reever was fuming about something." Linalee said, with another laugh at the look on Komui's face. Linalee stepped forward to drop off the fresh cup of coffee and pick up the empty ones all over the desk. Carefully dodging all the things on the floor, she balanced the teetering cups on her tray. Before she left, said hello to the three, and proceeded to leave.

"Wait, Linalee!"

Allen stood up suddenly, tripped over a few books, and rummaged through his pockets and retrieved a small gem stone glistening in the sunlight. He dropped it on her tray, and smiled. Allen didn't really say anything, just scratched his head and awkwardly. Linalee smiled, and grabbed his hand and gave it a good squeeze.

With that, she left the room, leaving Allen to stand where he was awkwardly, wondering what to make of that interaction he had just now. Kanda snickered, Lavi tugged on the sleeve of Allen's shirt to bring him back, and Allen soon sunk into his chair. Finally equipped with a fresh cup of coffee, Komui fixed his appearance and finally looking serious, put his hands on his chin, and opened his mouth.

If looks could kill, the Allen massacre would go down in company history.

"Allen, if there is something I don't know about between the two of you, I will personally be happy to place you in our East Asia department until you start to rot along with -"

But of course, Allen was expecting this long before he had a thing for Linalee anyway. The talk degenerated into death threats and torture sentences, and only a few minutes of the meeting was actually put into discussing the mission they just went through. After the debreifing, all of them left the office just to face a very annoyed Reever waiting in front of of the door with another pile of paperwork.

"Hey Allen, Kanda, Lavi," Reever said, trying to grin under the weight of paper. "He's awake now I heard. I hope he's ready to lose some sleep, seeing that he got his nap for the day down."

"God speed." Lavi said, patting Reever on the shoulder. Reever grunted, and walked in, and slammed the door behind him. "By the way, what's with the vibes I'm getting between you and Linalee?"

"I've only got three letters," Kanda said, pushing the two aside. "LOL"

Completely dumbstruck on who said what, Allen was stiffened with Lavi wondering what the hell he just heard.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys, the scafed prinny here.I want to thank the people again who go through the effort of writing reviews after reading. It feels real good when I know someone is reading this amateur work of mine. To those who haven't yet, please write some reviews and/or feedback, let it be constructive criticism, or just a simple 'good job'. Thanks

* * *

Dinner was the usual affair. Everyone seemed to know who everyone was, and even if they didn't it won't make a difference. The general feeling of a community grew within the people with no problems, as the pamphlet would proudly present to business groups and recruits. In all seriousness, no one would expect any of them to share the mindset of those expecting to die every single day. On the outside, it only looks like a group of people just happy to eat one more day, laugh, and live.

The chef, Jerry, was one of the most popular people in the company along with his small group of cooks he worked with. No matter how high the pile up, Jerry never failed to provide every hungry stomach with delicious food. With a smile every day, the over energetic cook took an order, threw it out, and the cycle continues.

"Hey Jerry," Allen said, finally reaching the counter with some difficulty. "How're you?"

"Just fine," Jerry said, busily brandishing a sauce pan, but still managing to light up at the sight of Allen. "How was your mission darling?"

"We had some hiccups, but it was the usual," Allen smiled, glancing at the menu. "Give me meals 2 through 15 and 30 to 38."

"Right you are," Jerry laughed, pushing up his sleeves as he heard the order. "I always look forward to you coming around every day. It'll be done in a flash, so sit down."

Allen said his thanks, and sat down at the nearby table. Looking around, there were too many new faces, with too many old faces missing again. Allen got used to his work, and consequently death as well, yet it always bothered him. It was one of things that always came back, no matter what happened around him. Even in this sea of life and energy, death was always lurking around the corner like always.

"Hey Allen."

Allen looked up to find Noise Marie sitting right next to him, looking tired.

"Hello Marie, how was your day?"

"Not so much," he answered, yawning widely. "Only a few recon missions and some decoding. A blind man can't be that much of use in the battle field."

"Don't say that," Allen said with a shove on the shoulder. "I'd say we'd give you a gun, throw you in the middle of the desert, and you'd come back in one piece with some reports to make on the local insurgents."

Marie chuckled, and patted Allen's hand. "You think too highly of me. I do appreciate the sentiment though." He held his nose in the air, with his head slightly tilted to the side. Tapping on his ear phones, he frowned.

"What is it?" Allen asked tentatively, noticing the slight change in Marie's expression. He, along Kanda knew that Marie was picking up something they were not.

As if to compensate his loss of eyesight since birth, Marie was gifted with an amazing sense of sound, able to pick up the slightest wavelengths the human ear could support. The two earphones on his head were noise cancellers, giving Marie the ability to cancel out all sound except that of which he was listening to. This ability landed him in the decoding division, although he did train extensively with Kanda in order to boost his physical prowess.

"It's nothing," Marie replied after a while. "I thought it might be some possible bombings over the facility, but it's just a drone. They make those things way too loud."

Allen sighed in relief, and soon took the cue to pick up his mountainous pile of food he just ordered. Marie got dragged away by one of the decoder corps, leaving Allen alone at the table. Heaving the massive amount of food on to the table, he gave his thanks, and started to eat like there was not going to be a tomorrow.

This famous 'appetite of section 7' was well known to almost anyone in the company, especially because he was the only one actually stacking piles of plates visible from half a mile away. This would be a heavy understatement to assume that it is his custom to eat only to match the amount of calories Allen exerts every day.

No matter how much he eats drinks or consumes, it never seemed to fill the gap he feels inside his chest and stomach. So he eats, trying to use something to fill the void inside him, and again, he would still feel like he filled his insides with nothing.

War is a terrifying thing, Allen thought. It makes the human body want even more than it currently has

Or perhaps, craves for things completely out of our reaches.

* * *

Seoul, South Korea.

When everyone was likely to sleep, this nation never seemed to close its eyes for a minute. Bright lights were flashing everywhere, drunken people riddling the streets, and tired students walking down the sidewalks with heavy bags with empty looks. It was 1 in the morning, and it is quite a wonder how the people in this small peninsula got along like this. It looked so much like a cage full of retarded children, screaming and thrashing, begging for attention. They had absolutely no regard to the things and people around them. Not that any other massive city looked any different.

All it took was a little something to throw it into chaos.

Only one little push to the edge of the brink, and they did the rest of the work.

With an earth-rocking shudder, an explosion erupted from five different buildings, throwing debris and shards of concrete on to the terror-ridden onlookers. Screams erupted from the people, of terror, of pain, of loss. With fires burning away, smoke was billowing from windows, and muffled cries of help could be heard if you listened carefully.

In the midst of all that, there was someone giggling at the din, watching from a distant building with a pair of binoculars. In her hand was what looked like a detonator, with her thumb pressed firmly on the switch. As police cars and fire trucks illuminated the dark streets of this neighborhood, she stood up, still smiling.

"C'mon Road," said a voice from her ear piece. "We're done here. You had your fun, now let's get back. I really want to go somewhere else."

"You're such a party pooper Tyki," Road said playfully, looking up into the skies. "The Earl said I could so whatever I wanted anyway."

"None the less, its affecting me, and I really want to leave," said Tyki's exasperated voice, clearly used to this kind of talk. "I'll get you a cup of pudding if you be nice."

"Really? Yay!"

With that childish offering, Road dropped the detonator, and stepped on it a few times until it was nothing but a pile of mangled plastic. Before she left for the pickup, she looked behind her one more time. The flames were still not calming down, with a glare very visible even where she was standing.

"Burn, baby burn."


	5. Chapter 5

Syndicates are well known by the public, thanks to the jittering of the media and popular mediums scattered throughout the world. It is true nonetheless that the public is heavily misinformed in multiple ways. The numbers of crimes, scattering bullets, and falling casings, all of those points that the people know about is much too dramatized. The truth that the public is blind to is so very simple, and very obvious.

The real thing, the real mafia, the real bad boys down the street;

The thing that defines them is that when they do their job, no one ever knows what happened.

"We just robbed you from top to bottom, and you still don't know how to speak?"

Due to this fact, the syndicate's favorite spot would be back allies, dark rooms, preferably sound proofed, and with plenty of furniture to demolish as a handy threat. Confidentiality defines safety, and secures the position as the underbelly of society, the true position of any sort of gang. The kids in Los Angeles or Miami, what were they called, the 'gangbangers'? That kind of flashy nature gets all of them nowhere, not even close to the top.

"Take a look at your hands here; a gun to your head, no cronies to look after you, and this is a completely isolated room that you oh-so-wisely chose to be part of your places to stay."

The true objective of an intricate gang of any kind would be boiled down to one thing. Not money, nor power, nor violence.

The job that the gang revolves around is protection, the safety of the family and their families, and so on. In order to be able to save their assets and valuable beings in their lives, any one of them would be able to pull the trigger at any given time, against anyone who poses as a threat. Let that be you own underling, your blood relative, or any of the higher ups.

"I'm getting real tired here, so I'm going to count to three."

Of course, they never follow the rules, and they do a good job in hiding it. Like I said, a real good family is one that never gets caught. Blood gets cleaned, a body gets removed, casings get picked up, and people are silenced. Let it be with a little bit of green in their pockets or simply with the good old shotgun-diplomacy.

"Please…I don't know anything I swear! All the earnings go through runners, and low class idiots like us can't even get a glimpse of who we're working for!"

"You don't say, huh?"

"I swear we can't even get close to the type of information you're looking for! Please! I beg you!"

"Well, guess you can't get me the info I need right? So, I can say that you are absolutely no use to me anymore. so what, should I let you go?"

The best way to keep the family safe at all costs, above all, is quite a straightforward one that everyone seems to gloss over every now and again. You see, all harms are predicated off risks, and when one takes that risk, either it goes well, or it doesn't. In the latter case, the whole problem resonates with the whole damn family, and then we get to an unpleasant thing that no one wants to do.

To put it simply, leave no loose ends. Take no risks.

"Hey, it's me. I've got a body here, and it's not that bad, so can two or three of you guys come over and clean it up? The address is…"

Take none. No matter how small they are.

Tyki was silently asleep at his favorite place, with the sunlight carefully covered with a coat over his face. The impression that he gave off was one of great vulnerability, but then again, he always did no matter what he did with any matter. He was popular amongst where he lived, and everyone knew who he was, and what he did. He was a man of no regrets, and he believed in nothing but himself and those he bestowed his trust with. Happily enough, many were more than willing to support Tyki and whatever he did. After all, the only reason that they were able to eat was thanks to the man.

"I'm back boss"

Tyki recognized the voice at once. Without even opening his eyes, replied.

"The neighbors were annoyed by the loud noises last night. I thought I told you to keep it down."

The figure stiffened. Although Tyki's voice was completely devoid of any sort of emotion, it still remained that the tone of his voice was on the verge of threatening. Straightening up again, the figure spoke.

"My apologies...I did not expect that to take the passage that it did."

"Was it necessary?"

This time Tyki looked up. The figure standing near him was barely 20 years old, but an air around him gave off the idea that this young boy suffered all of the world's hardships before anyone else did. In a sense, he did.

"Yes." The boy said, without any doubt in his voice. "Completely necessary."

"Well then, I'll let you off the hook this time," Tyki said, with a broad smile stretching across his face. "did you have lunch yet?"

Completely taken aback by this question, the boy shook his head innocently, trying his best not to give away his growling stomach.

"I guess not. C'mon, let's get something to eat."


	6. Chapter 6

Allen woke up to a sound he only knew too well. Grunting slightly, he pushed himself off his lovely bed and tried to shake off the last signs of drowsiness with a quick shake of the head. The obnoxious beeping that pierced his ears soon halted as he groped for the thing that the sound emanated out of. Looking around him, with light stinging his eyes, he noticed the clock pointing at a little over 11 am, and groaned before he could manage to heave his tired body off the cushions. He rubbed his eyes, and picked up a simple T shirt and a pair of pants, and put them on. He was too tired for this. He saw this coming as he signed up for the job, but in his defense, no one could belittle him for being deathly tired today.

After all, he only got 3 hours of sleep.

Opening the door of his room, he was blasted with a wave of air conditioned wind, helping a little to keep his eyes open. As he yawned and went down the hall way, familiar faces waved hello, and he answered, or more like grunted, back. He entered the briefing room, with comforting darkness to help him adjust to his surroundings better. Kanda, Lavi, and Reever were all present, and obviously waiting for his arrival.

"You took your time." Kanda muttered.

"Up yours, Kanda," Allen said with another yawn. "I just got the call, and I can't operate with only 3 hours of sleep."

"Now, now," Lavi said with a chuckle. "Let's all calm down, shall we?"

Reever shook his head at the three of them, and turned his back to them, tapping on the screen that they all faced. It immediately illuminated the room, and showed a complex mesh of maps, ids, videos, and a constant stream of information. One of the maps moved to the center, stretched itself out, and zoomed into a specific place.

"Around 12 am," Reever started, pointing at the map, "there was a series of explosions in the capital of the Republic of Korea, Seoul. It was smack in the middle of the city, and over 300 were lost in the explosions, and around 1000 were wounded due to this event."

He then pointed at the various video streams that had all the major news stations reporting this bombing in full detail with witness accounts, cell phone videos, and experts giving their opinions on the matter.

"A lot of the people point this attack towards The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, mainly known as North Korea."

"That's too convenient of a scapegoat," Kanda interjected, studying the various diagrams. "Someone obviously staged the attack to put the blame on North Korea to begin with."

"Our thoughts exactly," Reever said, nodding towards Kanda. "We thought it was too risky for the North Korean government to even try this, so we did some of our own research, and we found this."

Reever tapped the screen twice, and over the map, a photograph took place, with what looked like a piece of shrapnel, but with distinct markings and drawings on it. The biggest of them all, was what looked like the generic smiley face, with the words TME carved on the forehead of it. Allen immediately woke from his stupor, and started to give the screen his undivided attention.

"God bless marketing," Lavi chuckled, folding his arms. "This isn't an IED at all."

"Yep," Reever said, looking back at the three of them. "We thought of the idea of terrorism, but no terrorist group has anything against the South Korean government, let alone its people. This was calculated, and we want to know why."

"Last time I checked, we were hired guns," Allen said, still staring into the picture of the smiley face. "Not detectives."

"Well, you're not doing any detective work," Reever said, grinning. "The South Korean government wants us to protect their own investigation, and we're sending you three."

Kanda looked dumbfounded, and Lavi just grinned, wiping his hands together eagerly. Allen managed to tear his eyes off of the screen, and stared back at Reever.

"Wait, why us?" Kanda said, utterly confused. "This isn't some insurgence of North Korea or even a direct terrorist threat. Why does the South Korean government request our assistance?"

"They want to keep this on the down low, and we are the ones who provide the best anonymity to anyone who chooses to hire us." Reever said, turning on the lights and shutting down the screen. "The Section Chief narrowed you three out because of the thing we are dealing with."

"TME." Allen muttered, gripping his elbows.

"Precisely," Reever said, nodding in Allen's direction. "We all know what TME is, and we have met them in the past a few times." Reever paused, as if he was remembering some unpleasant events. Allen knew about them all too well, since it was TME that managed to put more than a dent in any of their activities. Kanda sighed in comprehension, and made a grimace, tilting to stare at the ceiling.

"We don't want to take any chances on this, even more so when it concerns TME," Reever continued, sticking his hands in the pockets of his lab coat. "We're sending you three, because you're the only ones in your caliber that actually has a matching schedule."

Silence dropped between the four men, with a heavy atmosphere. No one enjoyed any missions that TME was involved in, and it brought back memories that all them wished would stay suppressed until their dying day. Not that they had actual control over their lives, anyway. Lavi still managed to hitch on that same smile before stretching and left the room without saying a word. Kanda soon followed suit, not forgetting to brush near Allen as menacingly as possible before leaving. Unfortunately, Allen was too deep in thought to even notice.

"Worried, Allen?" Reever asked, scratching his unkempt hair.

"Not so much worried," Allen said, still staring blankly into the screen, somehow mesmerized by the smiley face. "More like, afraid."

"About what? You three are probably the most capable people in this facility." Reever chuckled, looking at Allen. "No offense, but I think most of us are afraid of you."

"Not so much about the TME," Allen said, with a rather deeper tone, eyes still fixed on the screen. "I'm concerned for myself. Maybe I won't be able to contain myself this time."

Reever understood immediately, and stopped himself before he said something stupid. The books, as well as everyone around the facility knows that it was an accident, but Allen always continued to beat himself up when every time he got anything related to TME. Wondering what he should do with this awkward atmosphere, Reever scratched the back of his hair, and sighed.

"Well, it's not like we have any other alternatives and we're sending _you_," Reever put emphasis on the word, "because we trust you. If that incident was deprecating to your credibility, we'd never even ask you to do this."

Allen smiled weakly, but still looked morbid as he stood up again. Giving his whole body a stretch, he headed for the door. The drowsiness has left him a long time ago, and his tired muscles were tense with a mixture of hormones reacting to his current state of mind. He would need to do this, and whether he liked it or not, he was going to get involved.

I'm sorry Mana, he thought, I'm going to have to do this again.

Allen slowly opened the door and left the room.


	7. Chapter 7

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates. I now have the finals behind me, I hope I can upload more often.

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The armory was always the place with the most compatibility with the movies. It was an underground facility with a bunch of grown men in bullet proof vests, brandishing tacky equipment, and fiddling around with buttons and switches, trying to get used to them. Like all of them, Allen also grabbed the standard uniform, which the company proudly produced as the 'best combat suit ever made.' After Allen finished suiting up, he headed towards the shooting range. Lavi was already there, checking the weight of various guns in his hands, and looking down the sights. Kanda looked like he was already done with, polishing his favorite blade.

"Why not pick up a ranged weapon?" Allen asked casually, his eyes scanning the weapon rack. "It doesn't make sense swinging around a sword in a fire fight."

"It makes about much sense to have a machine gun in public, Moyashi," Kanda retorted, not looking up from his busy polishing. "By the way, I'm sure that the gigantic gun you're about to pick up won't scare the civvies. This is an urban mission, not a war zone one."

Allen looked like he just got slapped in the face, and put the F2000 back on its rack. Kanda resumed his polishing with a triumphant grin on his face. Lavi chuckled in the background, and helpfully pointed Allen at the rack behind him, where the more concealable weapons were at. Allen, grumbling, turned to get a more appropriate weapon. His eyes eagerly scanned the Bolt Single Action Army, but with Kanda's eyes burning at the back of his neck, chose the regulation USP instead.

"Don't forget your combat knife," Lavi hummed, field stripping his own handgun. "The new S30V looks real nice you know."

Allen tucked in the knife with a grunt into the holster in front of the left side of his chest. This was much too routine than Allen ever wanted it to be. Being hired guns was never his job of choice to begin with. When he was threatened within inches of his life, when he was looking at the end of a barrel, or listening to rattling gunfire all over him, it was pure instinct. His experience took over, and he shot whatever was in his way. However, it always failed to help him sleep at night. When it came to urban missions, it became worse. There were too many lives to account for and too many innocents to look after. Even if the bullet wasn't from his own gun, if one civilian was down, it bothered him like nothing else.

This is why he had to stop TME. Before they take any, and before they force him to live with the guilt of all the lives he had to take.

Before the three of them boarded onto the jet, a flapping reached their ears. Allen automatically threw his left eye into night vision, and scanned the area. Bats were not uncommon within the confines of the passage way from the armory to troop transport. It was damp and cold, and sometimes the flying rodents found ways to get into the facility. What made Allen nervous was the fact that it was in no way an organic life form.

"The hell is that thing-" Kanda muttered, putting his gun barrel up.

"Wait, don't shoot!"

The voice didn't come from the three of them. It was from the flying object was unidentifiable. Soon it snapped what seemed to be its flash light feature. It was a small black thing with what they identified with a camera lens slammed into the center of it. Flapping energetically, the flying thing exerted Komui's voice.

"Thank god I caught you just in time," it said, looking at Allen. "Marvel at our most modern piece of technology ever conceived! Bask in the glory of-"

Before he could finish the sentence, however, the kicking down of a door, loud voices that included Reever's, and Komui's shrill shriek in terror punctuated the voice of the thing. The three guys looked at it in confusion. It was rather…creepy to hear the speakers ring while the flying object flapped its wings like nothing happened. After a brief radio silence, Reever's voice came to life.

"Sorry about that," Reever's voice said, "the chief was not getting his work done, and this is still a prototype by all means. We were about to send it to the lab for further development, but somehow he got his hands on one."

"What is this thing?" Kanda asked, tapping the lens of the object.

"Hey knock that off! This is delicate!" the flying object dodged Kanda's continual pokes while trying to keep its balance. "We call it a Golem, a new age communications device. We were trying to develop a brand new way to communicate with our boots on the ground, efficiently, and wirelessly. So we decided to put wings on the thing and wire it to the commercial satellites to boot."

"So this thing's a glorified cell phone?" Allen asked, staring at it.

"C'mon, give the R&D Department some more credit. We attached a live video feedback camera and built in mike. If we wanted to, we could record everything you so and make it into a war flick if we felt like it. We constructed an AI for it as well. It can assess all battle situations and move accordingly. Since we built it for mobility, it has no weapons or on-site support attached to it, but it can serve as a reliable source if you want to contact us or simply leave messages and keep field reports. If no one is on duty to monitor it, it will automatically save, and send it to us."

Reever's voice was riddled with soft pride, as if he was making a business presentation to a group of CEOs. Lavi and Allen clapped, but Kanda scoffed and threw a delicate question.

"What's the catch?"

"Well, it can't take extensive fire, or rather, it can't take fire at all. It had literally minimal protection, and easily seen. Camo is completely useless on the thing since it flies with wings. As a failsafe though, it will fly back to us in case of an emergency of any kind."

The trio looked intrigued by this new piece of technology, and it was small enough to conceal in any type of brief case. Mission logs were tedious, and no one was looking forward to lug a lap top around wherever they went, especially on an urban mission.

"Why not take the chance and try it out?" Lavi offered, smiling into the camera. "Practice makes perfect you know."

"It's a little risky," Reever murmured, grunting a bit, he seemed to have adjusted his seat judging by the squeaking of a chair. "We just released it, and we don't want people to go around poking at it and taking it apart. This thing cost us millions to develop you know. Mass production won't be as expensive, but it's like Apple's new tech to Steve Jobs."

"Sometimes you gotta run before you walk Reever," Allen said, becoming quite fond of the objet already. "Might as well try it out. If you're planning to go into mass produce the things, they're going to be deployed at one point."

Reever groaned a little longer, and finally sighed in defeat. "Fine. We'll take this as an opportunity to try our first golem. Just promise me that you're going to take good care of it and bring it back in one piece."

"No problem."


End file.
